A SIGH of relief greeted the verdict for Derek Chauvin, the police officer who murdered George Floyd. The case famously hinged on a video that would make even the most hardened among us wince.
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But while that video went around the world, advocates both in the US and Australia remain concerned by what happens to black people when the cameras are not rolling.
Investigations are underway into the death of an Indigenous inmate at Cessnock jail, one of several in just the past two months. It would be foolish to assume the circumstances of that incident, which Corrections have said indicate no foul play, yet equally it would be negligent to ignore the backdrop against which such a tragedy has occurred.
Wiradjuri woman and University of Newcastle PhD candidate Taylah Gray was succinct about why she believes change is required so urgently.
"Australia is a crime scene. My people are dying, we are the sickest and the poorest people in this country," she said.
"No one has been held criminally responsible for any black death in custody.
"No police commissioner has come forward to say 'hey we're going to do better Australia, we're going to do better to protect the black bodies in this country'.
"No government official has stepped forward to meet with the families."
Talk is cheap, yet even that appears to be less than forthcoming.
Logic dictates that there must be a reason for over-representation of Indigenous Australians in prison populations, if not in death in custody statistics. While Indigenous Australians do not die disproportionately in prison as a percentage of the prison population, as a portion of the Australian population they are significantly over-represented.
Ms Gray points to the same crimes being treated differently through the discretion of authorities. "Police in NSW pursue more than 80 per cent of Aboriginal people found with a small amount of cannabis through the courts while letting others off with warnings," she said.
That uneven playing field is a thread borne out in the royal commission into Indigenous deaths in custody's final report. That report arrived 30 years ago this month, and hundreds more people have died since.
It should not take a George Floyd tragedy for Australia to act upon the inequities and systemic problems within its systems. US activists were quick to point out that justice would be Mr Floyd's life continuing beyond his encounter with police, and that the Chauvin verdict was in fact an example of consequence. Reforming systems and processes is likely to help prevent tragedies for inmates regardless of race. For Australia, the George Floyd case shows why such problems should be pre-emptively fixed. Waiting for the cameras is both unnecessary and callous.